This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DOHA 000328 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/PPD, NEA/ARPI 
LONDON FOR ARAB MEDIA OFFICE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO PREL QA ALJAZEERA
SUBJECT: Al Jazeera website director to quit; start new 
newspaper 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The director of the Al Jazeera Arabic 
website, Abdulaziz Al Mahmoud, said he is quitting his Al 
Jazeera job to take up the chief editorship of an Arabic 
newspaper called "Al Arab", which will become the fourth 
Arabic daily newspaper on the Qatari market. Al Mahmoud is 
the only senior Qatari at Al Jazeera - which has just a 
handful of Qatari employees - and ascribed his desire to 
leave Al Jazeera to disillusionment with the channel and a 
difficult relationship with AJ Managing Director Wadah 
Khanfar. End summary. 
 
Abdulaziz Al Mahmoud 
-------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The new Chief Editor of Al Arab, Abdulaziz Al 
Mahmoud, is a close Embassy contact. A U.S-educated Qatari 
citizen, he graduated from New York state's Clarkson 
University in 1988 as a mechanical engineer. Al Mahmoud 
served as the commanding officer of the Technical Training 
School of the Qatari Armed Forces prior to becoming chief 
editor of the Arabic daily Al Sharq from 1998 until 2001. In 
July 2001 Al Mahmoud became chief editor of Al Jazeera.net. 
Until last year, he was in charge of both the Arabic and 
English versions of the website. A few months ago, control 
of the English website was handed over to Al Jazeera 
International and its editor-in-chief is currently British 
national Russell Merryman. 
 
The trouble with Al Jazeera 
--------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Al Mahmoud told PAO that working at Al Jazeera 
these days is frustrating compared to what it was when he 
joined in 2001. In the old days, he said, Al Jazeera was 
buzzing with idealism and alive with passionate debate 
between partisans of different ideologies (Arab 
nationalists, Islamists, secularists, socialists etc), and 
that it had a genuinely revolutionary atmosphere about it. 
Now, he said, people come to work from 9 to 5 like 
bureaucrats and Al Jazeera has become part of the mainstream 
establishment. He also said his relationship with AJ 
Managing Director Wadah Khanfar had become "difficult", but 
did not elaborate on the reasons for this. 
 
The Deputy Chief Editor 
----------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) The deputy chief editor of Al Arab will be Qatari 
citizen Mohammed Hajji, a former IV and another good Embassy 
contact. Mohammed Hajji is a law graduate from Beirut 
University's branch in Alexandria, Egypt. Hajji joined Al 
Sharq as a reporter and moved to Al Watan newspaper as an 
editor in 2001. Hajji traveled to the US in February 2004 to 
participate in a State Department-funded IV program on 
Foreign Policy and Decision Making process. PAS is currently 
funding an English language course for Mr. Hajji in a local 
English language institute. 
 
Al Arab 
-------- 
 
¶5. (U) Founded in 1972, Al Arab was Qatar's first post- 
independence Arabic newspaper. It was headed by the late 
Abdallah Hussein Nem'ma, a prominent Qatari intellectual who 
occupied the position of chief editor until his death. Al 
Arab was shut down in 1995, following his death. The Al Arab 
license was reportedly sold by the Al Nem'ma family to 
Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani 
(HBJ) in the 1990s. Post has leaned that HBJ's partner in 
the "new" Al Arab enterprise is Sheikh Thani bin Abdallah Al 
Thani, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Qatar's Al 
Sharq newspaper. Publication is expected to begin in the 
next several months. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) With a population of less than one million, the 
majority of whom do not speak Arabic, Qatar is not in need 
of a fourth Arabic language newspaper, particularly as Al 
Arab is not designed to fill a particular vacant news niche. 
All three current Arabic newspapers tend to print the same 
information, with only slight variations in editorial bent, 
and we do not expect Al Arab to be any different. The main 
attraction of newspapers in Qatar would appear to be their 
business value. The advertising revenues earned by all five 
local papers are reportedly considerable. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Comment continued: Although Qatari-funded and 
Qatari-controlled, Al Jazeera has few Qataris on its staff, 
possibly due in part to the fact that the overall number of 
practicing Qatari journalists is relatively small. Al 
Mahmoud's departure means the loss of AJ's only senior 
Qatari manager. His replacement at Al Jazeera.net has not 
yet been named. 
 
UNTERMEYER